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My Final Round-The-World Itinerary and Plans

A few months ago, I wrote a post described how I am flying around the world with the caveat, “for now!” Because I have Executive Platinum status with American Airlines, I can make free award ticket changes on award tickets. As a result, I have been regularly constantly checking for different airlines and routings for my trip. I even reached out to y’all for your help!

With my trip right around the corner (two weeks to go), I’m pretty sure I’m done tinkering with my tickets and routing. Here’s what it looks like:

AUS-LAX-HKG-KUL-CGK-AUH-DXB-LHR-DFW-AUS

Here’s what my Round-The-World routing looks like!

Austin, Texas to Jakarta, Indonesia

I was really hoping to be able to fly airlines I haven’t flown before and was fairly open to the routing to get from Austin to Jakarta and again back to Austin (but crossing the Atlantic this time). I’ll be flying American Airlines from Austin to Los Angeles in First Class on a 737-800. I’ll have five hours at LAX airport (lounge-hopping anyone?) where I’ll fly a Cathay Pacific 777-300ER in business class to Hong Kong. From Hong Kong, I’ll connect to a Malaysia Airlines 737-800 in business class to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. My connecting flight from KL to Jakarta departs the next day, so I’ll have almost 10 hours in KL. I found an interesting on-airport hotel: Capsule by Container Hotel, which is a (luxury?) pod-hotel. I prepaid the room there for a whopping $25 for the night. {I plan on reviewing the hotel so stay tuned!} The next day, I’ll be in Business Class on another Malaysia Airlines 737-800 from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta.

I spent $53.60 in taxes and burned 55,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles for the Austin to Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta one-way portion of the trip. Because I wanted to see the value of this award ticket, I searched to see how much these exact flights would have cost. Keep in mind that I did this search the same day I booked with miles. Prices vary, but this was the going rate for these flights on these dates. The cost for my exact flights was priced at $6200. Overall, I think I got an excellent value for my AAdvantage miles and the flights worked perfect with my schedule.

Jakarta, Indonesia to Abu Dhabi, UAE

I nixed my plans for Budapest and Helsinki when an opportunity to spend a few days in Ireland with some friends and found a ticket on Etihad Airways to go from Jakarta to Abu Dhabi to Dublin. Ultimately the friends couldn’t make the Irish rendezvous, so I dropped the Abu Dhabi to Dublin segment.

I spent $12.80 in taxes and burned 30,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles for the Jakarta to Abu Dhabi one-way portion of the trip. To see the value of this award ticket, I searched to see how much these exact flights would have cost. From Jakarta to Abu Dhabi, the cost of a business class seat for my exact flights was priced at $3,551.


Dubai, UAE to Austin, Texas

I’ll get to spend a full day the United Arab Emirates and I’m still finalizing my time there. I hope to have a post next week about what I’ll be up to. I found a very interesting ticket to get from Dubai back to Austin. I’ll be flying a Qantas Airways A380 from Dubai to London/Heathrow in First Class. I’ll have four hours at LHR where I’ll connect to a British Airways 777-300ER in First Class to Dallas/Ft. Worth. After three hours in DFW, I’ll be on an American Airlines Super-80 in First Class for the short hop down to Austin.

I spent $372.40 in taxes and fuel surcharges and burned 90,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles for the Dubai to London to Dallas to Austin one-way portion of the trip. To see the value of this award ticket, I searched to see how much these exact flights would have cost. From Dubai to London on Qantas, London to Dallas on British Airways, and Dallas to Austin on American, the cost of a First Class seat for my exact flights was priced at $20,020. {I don’t necessarily think anyone would ever buy the routing I did at that price, but that’s what Kayak.com said it would cost!}

Overall, I spent $438.80 and 175,000 AAdvantage miles to take eight flights and fly 23,219 miles all the way around the world.

What do you think of my itinerary? Have you flown these airlines/routes? What would you have done differently?

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